> My relationship with Atreus might have been the reason he agreed to take Arthur to Menelaus. I could not say for certain. Truthfully, I can’t think of a reason to care. What mattered was that I had consigned my family to a fate that even then I had no capability to recognize. In the days, months, and years to follow I would ask myself—repeatedly and often—whether or not I had missed the window wherein I could reverse the clock, change my decision, and ameliorate the pain that followed. To this day, I still wonder.
“That man is going to be trouble, Cassandra.”
“Isn’t that why you’re handling him, Atreus?” the Yponávarchos asked with clear amusement.
“As amusing as it is to see you as happy as a kitten with cream, Cassandra, this is not the time for your predatory amusements.” Atreus responded with long-suffering exasperation. “We have just inherited a potential problem. Arthur Magellan may be the answer to your woes, and he may also be the prelude to House Leos’ final destruction.”
“It is not as if we are blessed by a bevy of options.”
“I am aware.” Atreus sighed while settling his armored weight against her desk.
“Then you know that Menelaus and I are running out of time, Atreus. Houses Drakos, Gataki, and Onasis are looking for any excuse to erode our family’s position, and to compromise our daughter—either through enforced marriage to seize our assets, or through an ‘accident’.”
“Your husband needs to force her to accept some bodyguards.”
“You know what she is like, Atreus. Circe is headstrong, proud, and fiercely independent. She’ll never consent to what she sees as babysitters.”
“That reminds me of someone else I know.” the Myrmidón said with a meaningful glance down at the Rear Admiral, and a small quirk of his lips. His duty meant that Atreus often schooled his emotions behind a strong and largely indomitable mask, but alone with the few who knew him well—like Cassandra—it was easier to let his guard down to some degree.
“I am painfully aware of the mirror that my daughter has become when it comes to myself seventy years prior Atreus—”
“Seventy? I would have said thirty.” he interjected with a snort.
“—and while I appreciate the amusement it no doubt engenders within you, I must stress that I cannot afford to let the just desserts of my own youthful misadventures inform the fate of House Leos’ only heir. The primary line has existed since Hellas was settled, and if Menelaus were the one to fail to continue it…”
Atreus sighed subtly under his breath and turned to extend his right hand to rest on her shoulder. “I understand your worry, Cassandra. The problem is not your attempted use of Magellan, if indeed he is as powerful as we believe him to be—but instead the consequences for your House if the inkling of the other touch I thought I sensed turns out to be a true residue.”
“It seems unlikely.” she said with a frown and look up at him.
“Unlikely? Yes. Improbable? Definitely. Impossible, though?” Atreus shook his head and downturned the corners of his lips to demonstrate his consternation. “A Terran Inquisitor leaving a mark on his mind is not fully outside the realms of possibility. There is something about Magellan that despite all answers pointing to affirmation of his identity, I cannot help but believe it is false.”
“You don’t truly think he’s a Parthian spy, do you?”
“No. Nor do I think he’s an enemy, nor an agent of one of your political opponents. But does that mean he is not a risk? That he is not hiding something?” Atreus’ eyes shifted toward the door through which Arthur had departed with Endymion and Perseus and his frown grew.
“My concern Cassandra is that the boy will prove to be not an enemy, but someone far greater in importance than we imagined. Even the implication of an Inquisitor’s touch—and I only know of one order with close to the psionic power to leave the kind of ghosted residue I might have sensed—infers the involvement of not just the Grand Imperium, but of Terra itself.”
“What could the Imperator want with Graecia, Atreus?” Cassandra said in what Atreus knew was an attempt to soothe his worries. “There could be many reasons Arthur might have interacted with an Inquisitor of Sol, and none of them mean anything targeted at our homeland. In the grand game of interstellar politics, we are a small factor by any stretch of the imagination.”
“It is my duty to consider the worst possible scenario, Cassandra.”
“And mine, as your friend, to remind you of what is truly important. The potential of a galactic conspiracy centered around a single Eidolon pilot and a mid-Rim nation, no matter how advanced we are for our position, is not within that scope.”
“Oh?” Atreus asked with another glance back at her. “We are friends now, are we?”
“While my clothes are still on.” Cassandra said with an amused smile. “Certainly.”
Atreus felt his heart skip a beat at the heat in her voice, and he growled under his breath. “Menelaus warned me you were incorrigible of late.”
“My time away from my husband has made me voracious, it is true. It is hardly my fault you are the only one I can turn to for succor.” she demurred.
“I did not agree to be your enkekriménos erastís just for you to use me as you see fit, Cassandra.”
“You agreed because you would have been my husband were your path different, Atreus, and you agreed because you love Menelaus as a brother. You are the only one we can trust to tell us the truth of the Kings’ courts.”.
“I skirt my oaths to do so, Cassandra.” Atreus reminded her grimly. “Oaths that have dire consequences when even loosely circumnavigated.”
“And I love you for the risk you take on our behalf, my Knight. Agreeing to validate Magellan was more than I might have asked for. The fact you are willing to stay with him is more than I ever expected.”
“His presence threatens to destabilize all of Graecia, if not the Hyperion Sector at large.” Atreus said grimly while looking toward the door through which Arthur had exited only minutes earlier, and once again recalling the ghost of an impression he’d felt during his delve. The power residue there had been catastrophic. More than even the Strategos of the Myrmidónes could hope to wield.
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“We have survived worse than one pilot.” Cassandra said reassuringly.
“If only it were honestly that simple.” Atreus said with an exhale of the frustration he felt. “I cannot describe to you what he is, Cassandra, because I cannot make you think as I do—but he has enough psion density to make me want to help him. Even knowing what is happening, and even with my own Callandium-empowered defenses in play; I still feel that compulsion even now.”
“If he truly is so powerful, then why let him go?” she asked with an idle rest of her chin on her beautiful fingers. “Why not lock him in a cell, or vent him out of an airlock and be done with it?”
“Forgetting the strictures of honor that compel us to do nothing of the sort,” Atreus began with a flat look at his beloved, “the reality is that Magellan is hiding something. Something big. Something he thinks he pulled over me. For now, I am content to let him dwell in that false blanket of security. It will make him more liable to reveal whatever it is he’s hiding.”
“You… you don’t think he’s an agent of Terra, do you?” Cassandra asked in a voice that told Atreus he’d finally managed to break through her indefatigable confidence. “Because the only reason Terra would send an agent, would be—”
“—Censure.” Atreus finished grimly. “If they were looking at us for Censure.”
“We haven’t done anything to warrant that.” Cassandra said with what Atreus sensed as a spike of uncertainty. “We’ve abided by the unspoken mandates the Imperator enforces across the Humanosphere. There are Fringe and Verge nations far closer to Terra with far broader ambitions than us. True Multi-Stellar states, at that.”
“I agree it isn’t entirely rational.” Atreus said in his calmest voice. “But neither is it something we can entirely rule out. A pilot of Arthur’s caliber could change the balance of power across the entire sector. If you give that man a machine of worth, he’ll win wars by himself—or as close to that as an Eidolon pilot can get.”
“Is there truly nobody in Graecia that could match him?”
“With the right machine? I doubt there’s anyone in the Rim that could match him.”
“Not even Circe?”
“I’m not sure.” Atreus admitted.
“And he’s definitely a Freelancer?” Cassandra pressed.
“He was not lying about being a Knight-Errant.”
“...Hm.” Cassandra said at Atreus’ words, at the same moment as her uncertainty was subsumed by what he had come to understand was a feeling of calculation.
It was a feeling that often gave him cause to worry.
“Cassandra.” he said warily.
“He needs to accept my offer...” she muttered.
“Cassandra.” he said more intently.
“I would need to make sure he’s handled properly, of course…”
Atreus turned and placed his forefinger under her chin, lifting it up so he could look down into her eyes, each one like thunderstorms made into a window to the soul. “Cassandra.” he growled. “What are you scheming?”
“My House needs a Champion, Atreus.” his lover responded while reaching up to gently stroke his armored hand. “My husband needs a Hetairoi. My daughter needs a Knight. House Leos needs a Protector. We cannot afford to let any opportunity pass us by. House Drakos has all but defenestrated our ability to even approach Eidolon pilots to fight for us, and here one of the greatest in Graecia’s history has just fallen into my lap.”
“It’s too dangerous. We were just speaking on whether he was an agent of—”
“If Graecia is to be censured, we can do nothing to stop it.” Cassandra cut him off firmly, and lightly pushed his hand away. “If Terra wants to make an example of us for whatever slight the Imperator might concoct in his Callandium-mad brain, that’s Terra’s business. I cannot—I will not, in fact!—live my life like a child scared of their absentee father’s ire!”
“He could be the end of everything, if he’s here for a nefarious purpose.” Atreus warned.
“He could be the answer to everything if he isn’t, and if we ingratiate House Leos to him and his theoretical puppet masters from Terra come calling, well… that is an advantage I’m willing to take as well. You saw how well he responded to my offer, and my honesty. Arthur could fix everything.”
“This gamble could cost you and Menelaus everything, Cassandra.”
“It could.” she agreed. “But not doing anything will. We have nothing left, Atreus. There is only Circe to fight for us, and I will not see my daughter destroyed by our enemies if I can stop it. I cannot sit back and wait for my family by birth and by marriage torn asunder because I was too worried to act.”
Atreus stared at her in silence, debating what to say, how to say it, and what words would have the best impact. He considered which examples to use, which caveats to raise, which cautionary tales to wield—and then, as if from on high, a realization pierced the nebulous web of his own rapid thoughts.
If she did nothing, she truly would have nothing by the end.
Atreus sighed when he realized he would not be able to change her mind, and he settled back against the desk. “I can see you are set on this.” he rumbled. “And I understand why, even if I worry for your safety—and for Menelaus and Circe’s as well.”
“You have done all you can to protect us within the confines of your oaths, my love.” Cassandra said warmly. “You would have been Menelaus’ Strategos, had your calling not taken you elsewhere. You know that. It broke his heart when the Myrmidónes took you.”
“I know.” Atreus said with a ghost of old regret. “I remember.”
“Good. Then when Arthur is gone, I will ask Menelaus to keep you apprised of—”
“There will be no need.” Atreus interjected while the decision was already resolving in his mind. With things as they were, he realized that sitting back would never be an option. “Regardless of where he goes, I will stay with him. Once you enact your schemes, and if they work to convince him, I’ll go with him to Laconia—to House Leos’ grounds, instead of the Fortress of Ares.”
Cassandra looked up at him in surprise. “Just like that?”
“There are many reasons to watch him, but if you truly plan to recruit him, and he is to do what I could not and become Strategos? Well, that is a compelling one.”
“I’ll need to send a message to Diogenes before he reaches him, then.” Cassandra murmured. “The changes I’ll need to make, I…” she paused and looked back up at Atreus. “Really, though? Just like that you’ll go to Laconia?”
“If he is to ensure the safety of my vaptistikí̱,” Atreus said stoically, “I cannot afford to let him do so absent guidance.
“And in the act, you have the time to visit your metamor.”
“Menelaus tires of my warnings faster than you do, Cassandra.”
“That’s because you’ve never fucked him.”
“You’re being crass.” he scolded without heat.
“So punish me.”
“Cassandra…”
“Atreus.”
He sighed at the shit-eating grin on her face and pushed himself off her desk. “I only have an hour at most before my Kidemónes brothers will wonder at my tarrying.”
“And I have schemes to concoct, my handsome Knight.” Cassandra said with a distinctly predatory and heart-breakingly beautiful smile. “So, let’s not waste a second.”
Atreus couldn’t help but let loose a low, bass chuckle.
“As you wish, Lady Leos.”